Sunset Lane Closure Impacts Traffic

The closure of a west-bound lane of Sunset Boulevard has impacted traffic during rush hour.

Gazzano Explains Lane Closure

On August 29, Circling the News (CTN) sent the following email to Councilman Mike Bonin’s Communication Director David Graham-Caso:

“As the construction progresses around Caruso’s Palisades Village, one lane on Sunset Boulevard (westbound) has consistently been shut during the afternoon/evening rush hour, causing massive backups on Sunset. Perhaps one of your colleagues has monitored the conversation on Nextdoor?

“I reached out to DWP and they said they do not close a lane during rush hour. Who is responsible for this? How can the situation be rectified?”

Caruso’s VP of Development Michael Gazzano responded to CTN in a September 4 email:

“For our work, we have a lane closure permit with LADOT for the duration of the project and have only used when necessary,” he said. “When in effect, we follow all safety precautions with signage and cones.

“In addition, we have voluntarily continued to pay for crossing guards at the intersection to add another layer of safety. Currently, there are a lot of public infrastructure improvements in process along Sunset Boulevard that we are providing–new curb and gutter, sidewalks, street trees, street lights, traffic signals, right turn lane and new asphalt,” Gazzano wrote. “In order to perform this work, and other work in the vicinity, it is necessary to close one lane of Sunset. For the most part, the lane closure is complete and returned to normal traffic flow at 3:30 p.m.

“On a few occasions, the lane closure has remained in effect in order to complete a task that requires work to continue that cannot be abruptly stopped and put on hold until the next day,” he said. “More recently, we have voluntarily provided traffic control officers from LADOT to help with traffic control.”

“It’s also important to note that much of the time the lane closure work is, in fact, being done by LADWP,” he said.

Midmorning on September 4, new street curbing was being installed along Sunset between Swarthmore and the mid-block traffic light across from Kayndaves. Palisades Village will have its grand opening on September 22.

Of course, naming his project Palisades Village, was a calculated move. But it doesn’t matter what he chose to call it because we will call it what we want, as usually happens with shopping malls. (Westfield Century City, anyone? No, it’s the Century City mall.)
Our entire commercial area both north and south of Sunset always has been The Village and it always will be The Village. Caruso’s project is The Mall within our Village.